New Budget Proposes Almost $1.5 Billion to Protect You from Gun Violence

Just reading that, you know this cannot be good. In his latest budget request, Obama requested $1.1 billion for gun control and “to protect Americans from gun violence.” But the assault on our Second Amendment rights will not stop there. Adding fuel to the gun control fire, the Department of Justice (DOJ) asked for an additional 382.1 million for gun control.

Barack Obama and Whitehouse.gov introduce “Now is the Time” gun safety initiative. Will they get it?

A closer examination of the DOJ’s budget request shows an allotment for $2 million to be doled out for smart gun technology grants. Of the $1.1 billion, The Washington Beacon has reported that $182 million is earmarked for the President’s ‘Now is the Time’ gun safety initiative.” Whitehouse.gov introduces ‘Now is the Time’ using every recent firearm related tragedy including Newtown, Aurora and U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. All have been linked to mentally ill shooters. If the White House was serious about protecting our children, it would have requested the money for mental health not gun control. However, there are few political points to be scored by combating mental health.

Behind the White House’s efforts is Bruce Reed, Obama’s chief of staff. Reed served during the Clinton administration as a domestic policy advisor. He was also instrumental in working with the senator Joe Biden to draft and pass the Crime Bill of 1994—more commonly referred to as the Assault Weapons Ban.

According to Whitehouse.gov, ‘Now is the Time’ seeks to include all of the following:

Require Background Checks for All Gun Sales

Background checks for all gun purchases.

This has been a hot topic around many gun circles. It closes the so-called gun show loophole. In reality, what it does is prevents the transfer of firearms between private parties. To be clear, it is already illegal for me—as a private person—to sell a firearm to a person who could not otherwise own it. However, the onus is on me to ensure the buyer may legally own the weapon. The antis have blown this way out of proportion by using rhetoric that dubs shows “Illegal Arms Bazaars.” This is another case of trying to make something already illegal…more illegal?

Strengthen the Background Check System for Gun Sales

Of course, all of the mass shooting the antis hold out as the impetus for their gun control legislation has been linked to legal sales of firearms. In the case of Newtown, the weapons were not properly secured. The others purchased their weapons legally. As usual, this will only affect the law abiding citizens and not he criminals.

Pass A New, Stronger Ban on Assault Weapons

Because this is a great use of our tax dollars—not! The crime rates have plummeted since the expiration of the first Assault Weapons Ban (almost 20 percent) while gun ownership of the very weapons they seek to ban had skyrocketed. As for the whole scare tactic of referring to modern sporting rifles (MSRs) as assault weapons, that has been covered ad naseum. They have learned from the past or simply have not cared.

Limit Ammunition Magazines to 10 Rounds

Standard capacity magazines would be limited to 10 rounds under ‘Now is the Time.’

Jerry Miculek can accurately shoot 18 rounds from revolver (including two reloads) in under 12 seconds or something like that. Sure, Jerry is a wonderful freak of nature and a pleasure to watch, but it does not take a trained shooter to swap a 10-round magazine. At best, you would slow the psychopath by a couple of seconds—hardly a measure that would keep our children safe. In reality, do they think a person bent on committing mass murder would really worry about how many rounds he or she was legally allowed to have in the mag?

Finish the Job of Getting Armor-piercing Bullets Off the Streets

Look at the FBI’s own stats. Long guns account for about 3% of murders. The standard rounds from most rifles will already defeat body armor. Armor Piercing or AP rounds are typically military surplus steel core ammo from abroad. This is little more than a veiled attempt to reduce ammo imports of military surplus for certain popular calibers such as 7.62×39 and 7.62×54. This would do nothing for safety. Instead, it would reduce supply for plinking and increase prices.

This could be legit. As with most items on the gun control agenda’s list, the devil is in the details. I could see some support for additional resources to solve cold crimes involving firearms or something along those lines. However, I strongly suspect this money would more likely be used to kick in doors in an attempt to enforce the draconian laws of Connecticut’s registration restrictions and magazine bans than true gun crime.

End the Freeze on Gun Violence Research

There isn’t now, and never was, a freeze on gun violence research. The congress may have squashed the antis government supported slush fund, but anyone is free to research it. However, without dangling the carrot of government-backed research, how will they ever get the skewed numbers they seek?

Make our Schools Safer with New Resource Officers, Counselors…

Somehow, I do not think the White House is getting on board with the NRA’s “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun campaign.” If that was the case, I could get behind this one.

Ensure Quality Coverage of Mental Health Treatment

We can only hope the majority of the funds would be directed here. After all, we do not need more gun laws and murder is already the highest crime in the nation. Another law will not deter a bad guy and the mentally ill are not focused on whether or not their actions are within the letter of the law. The majority of mass shooters commit suicide when law enforcement arrives. They have no plans of being adjudicated. I will reserve judgment on this one until I see further details, but we can hope…

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Comments (32)

Hank A;varez

As a “reformed democrat” I’m tired of the BS this administration is putting out. They’ve been an embarrassment that I can no longer defend. And I’ve survived some pretty bad administrations but they haven’t all been democrats. With half the country drinking the poison lemon aide that these clowns are putting out I’ve come to the conclusion that we have to make sure that they’re unemployed on the next election cycle. But who do we vote for? We only have two viable parties in this country and that puts us between a hard place and a rock.

The last couple of times the republican’s front runners were almost laughable. I could have voted for the senator from Arizona but the bubble headed beauty queen that would have been a heart beat away from the oval office who could see Russia ninety miles away from her porch in Alaska was too much of a reach.

Then you backed it up with the guy who wears magic underwear who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and made his living cannibalizing companies with his rich friends and ruining hard working peoples lives.

I have no attraction to the republican party that used to stand for reason but was taken over by the religious right who believe that the world is five thousand years old because some charlatan on a pulpit told them so. Don’t confuse them with the facts should be their motto. And I guess I might as well finish by pissing everybody else off because I do believe in the separation of church and state and a woman’s right to choose.

Biff Sarin

You know, tomorrow is ‘tax day’. So today, I had to write a HUGE check to the IRS to go along with the obscene amount of money they already took from me in the form of withholding. When I see numbers like these, $1.1 BILLION for gun, it’s nice to see the President, et al. spending my hard earned money with such care (/sarcasm). When they ask me to give them tens of thousands of dollars each year to ‘help with the deficit’, then they turn around and burn billions on BS programs, my rear end starts feeling REALLY sore!!!!

Frantz

Even if the technology works. The question is will the government force all guns manufactured after a specific date have this technology? If so then the government is treating the gun industry like the car industry. The price of a car is not what it is because of the cost of production, but because of all the safety and electronics they now have.

If people don’t start now to limit the smart gun technology then it is only a matter of time that your gun is like your phone. At some point the smart gun will have GPS and data link recording of when it was used and where it was used. Do you want that?

dewey

Very well stated frantz. Another thing to keep in mind is the possibility of a future EMP attack by terrorists or worse, our own govt. If your gun is electronic then it wouldn’t help when you needed it most.

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